Chapter Text
Prologue: Alfea
"Switched Melody to last, eh?" Saul asked over his shoulder, his voice a purposeful nudge in regards to her home realm. "Sure you don't want to just get it out of the way?"
"I'm quite sure," she answered, her back to him and head up as she studied the empty shelves on the second floor of her office. There was an extensive leather bound historical encyclopedia set in library storage that she had been coveting for years and it would fit perfectly on the upstairs shelves. There were already two piles of historical and literary texts stacked up beside her that needed to be given homes but she knew she wanted those down and nearer her desk.
"Because if any stops need to be cut short you can avoid going home by way of responsibilities to Alfea. And then I never get the chance to meet -"
"What are you implying?" Farah asked openly, swinging around to meet the cocked smirk he was giving her. Saul lifted the tour itinerary as though it were courtroom evidence of an accusation. She didn't need to hear it, but the smug and mischievous look on his face kept her
rapt attention.
He was being a shit and both of them knew it. One of his shoulders gave a half shrug, the papers lowered. "That you're a coward."
She squinted thin as she adjusted the waistline of her skirt, half surprised he'd gone so far as to say so. His humor filled his voice and her office, meeting the slant of afternoon light behind him. Their combined good mood fed their mutual silliness, warming the room.
"Gutsy today, are you?" she asked with feigned menace, brow arched.
"Your favorite tea set is between us, Dowling. I have the metaphorical high ground." It wasn’t necessarily her favorite - but it was the first one that she had ever bought for herself.
Her fingers flicked left to right and the entire serving tray rattled as it slid ten inches to the side. "Do you?"
"Poor form," he murmured, an inevitable smile resting on his lips as he set the papers beside the tray. "You cheat, fairy."
"You'd prefer Eraklyon last?"
"Not at all. I'm Androsian and I'd prefer not to go at all." The entire commentary had been dry and almost pedantic, drawing her attention - he was starting to truly sound like a teacher and she found it delightful. Saul Silva as Headmaster had her so very pleased and proud, if only because it was a position he truly assumed he did not deserve. She knew better. "In fact, take Harvey. Then I can stay home with Sky."
She had actually forgotten he was from Andros. It had been a little scrap of fireside information that Andreas had weaseled out of him years before. She had barely been paying attention, half dozing with her head against Ben's shoulder. Saul finally divulging any personal background information had caught her attention and kept her from sleeping. Now she kept the memory close, eyes meeting his as affection flooded out of her. He squinted at her suddenly as she let the feeling wash his way. He didn't mention it, but she knew he felt it.
"The very last thing I want to do is place Ben in a situation that requires any sort of political finesse," Farah told him, opening the book in her hand to check the publication date. "Let alone seven times over. He'd have a stroke."
"I'm not much better, Dowling,” he countered casually, his voice rising up behind her as she caught the sliding ladder and stepped up to the higher of the downstairs shelves.
She slipped the book between two others, keeping their publication dates ordered as she smiled to herself, "True, but I do so like to watch you squirm."
She felt his responding amusement flush warm up her back. Then she quickly chose to ignore the flicker of attraction that followed, chalking it up to the fact his line of sight was suddenly even with her backside.
"Big office going to your head already?" Saul goaded her, putting a hand out to offer her balance. She just snorted a half laugh in response, her palm settled in his as she came back down the ladder. The warmth in his touch kept her still as she found the floor, her eyes lifting to meet his as she realized he wasn’t in a rush to let go. Instead he just lowered their hands, his fingers still tucked around hers and giving a squeeze for attention. "Harveys tonight?"
"Rose practically demanded it,” she smiled in agreement, nodding as he finally let her fingers loose.
The loss of his touch was a surprisingly visceral feeling, one that was filled with a strange and quirky mix of emotions. Excitement, anxiety, worry, pleasure. They were all fluxed and flummoxed up between them, so intermingled that she couldn’t necessarily pry apart which belonged to whom before he took a purposeful step back and grabbed at one of the next books on the nearest pile. Farah watched him read the title off the spine, eyebrows shooting up before he rolled his eyes at her and flashed the cover her way. The leather bound Solarian first edition of ‘Ancient Arcane Feretories: Strengths & Weaknesses’ was far more interesting to her than it would be to him and she grabbed it from his hand with a playfully annoyed squint.
Saul just grinned in answer, watching her set the book to the nearest shelf. She wasn’t entirely sure where she wanted it yet but it got it out of his hands, at the least. "Thought we'd load the car after if you're packed up."
"I will be," she nodded her agreement as she lifted another text from the pile beside the lush leather loveseat. Her bags were mostly ready to go, packing lists made and remade, checked and rechecked. "I just have to add a few things to what's started."
"Later, then?"
She just nodded, hugging the text to her chest as she looked up once more at the fast filling bookshelves. "Later."
***
He wasn’t at all offended that it only took two hours for her to fall asleep beside him. Especially not when she made a sweet little sound in her throat and shifted, shoes already off and chucked up into the foot well. She was still asleep, trying to wriggle around in the seat, obviously annoyed by her positioning. He was trying to drive while distracted by an adorably fussy headmistress.
Saul reached over and tugged the long slant of the seatbelt away from her upper body, holding it out as she grumped in her sleep. His right hand stayed tight to the wheel, eyes on the road as she finally started to settle, her breathing soft and even. He felt his own unavoidable smile take his lips, fingers slowly and softly settling the belt back over her as he kept half an eye on the road. It was a passing car that had him distracted enough to be surprised by her hand touching on his wrist, loosely grasping around it.
“You were -”
“Thank you,” she murmured overtop of him, fingertips brushing off of the inside of his wrist softly. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he shook off, hand back on the wheel. “Still another hour or so.”
He felt her eyes on him, felt the warm and hazy lull of sleepiness fill the car along with sunshine’s heat.
“Need a break?”
Saul shook his head in negation, giving her a quick glance before looking back to the road. Her head was turned his way, half her body angled toward him as she watched him drive. Any other time he might have felt self conscious under her watch but there was such a pleasant and comfortable lull in the car that he half smirked instead. He could feel her smile on him, silly as it sounded. The softness in her eyes had been comforting and affectionate. He didn’t have near the insight she had for feelings or emotions or such things - but he knew an intimate moment when he felt one. And he felt it coming before she reached her right hand over and brushed her knuckles against his side, fingers insistent and warm through the fabric of his shirt. Everything in him screamed to take her hand but he hesitated one second too long, losing the chance as she curled back up to herself on her side of the car.
Her lungs exhaled long and slow as she snugged back down deeper into the seat. “How long do you think we can avoid Luna once we’re there?”
“Can go in the back, sneak our way forward.”
“She’ll know as soon as you’re on the grounds, Saul.” Farah shifted again, catching half his attention. She slid the upper part of the seatbelt down under her elbow and held it lower, a sigh coming off her as she drew her knees higher and more sidelong in the seat. His hand itched to calm her movements, wanting nothing more than to settle on the knee that was presented at his side - especially considering he’d blundered when she had just reached for him. “I’m surprised she doesn’t constantly monitor your location.”
Right. And there it was. He’d been waiting.
“This how it’s gonna be the next few weeks?” he asked, bemused. “Every high ranking woman to ever show interest in Saul SIlva is going to get a full evaluation by the new Headmistress of Alfea?”
“They really ought to have their heads examined, to be fair.”
“Oi,” he shot back, unable to keep himself from laughing. He couldn’t help but indulge her when she was being coquettish, most especially not recently. It felt as though a burden had been slid backwards off them both at once and the vacancy of emotional weight had given them more leniency in things like humor and teasing, flirting. Rosalind Hale didn’t hover at their shoulders anymore, trapped instead beneath their feet. “Can’t wait to see that professor of yours either. Should be a real joy.”
He’d flirt with Farah Dowling to the ends of the Otherworld and back if she’d let him. She was sexy as hell when being sassy. She always had been and he had always admired it.
“As though I would ever put the two of you in a room together,” she muttered, annoyed that he would so quickly remind her of such a tragically terrible dalliance.
Saul grunted, knowing they had a full four realms to visit before they once again set eyes on the professor she’d had a short and disastrous affair with two terms before. “As though it’ll be any choice of yours.”
“Don’t be smug,” she gentled between them, her fingers giving a tug on his sleeve as he grinned.
His head turned her way for just a moment, breath getting caught still by the surprisingly adoring way she was looking at him. Her eyes were soft for him, lulled by sleepiness and humor, maybe something more, something he couldn’t quite suss out. He couldn’t feel things so keenly as she could and so her visual affection was a surprise. It also instantly got him a bit hard.
He forced himself to look back to the road.
Weeks. They were about to spend weeks together, alone while with each other and company. Alone with each other and transitory, Alfean responsibilities in limbo behind them.
They'd faced far worse in their days together, as partners. So he wasn't sure why he was so bloody nervous then.
Except that he knew he was an idiot.